Rather, it is describing managers who don't really have a purpose or view on anything.

For example, let's say one of your employees completes a project or assignment. If they ask, "did I do a good job?", would you be able to answer that - do you have a standard for "good" in your mind, a sense of what the company is trying to do, and assess how that project fits with that purpose? If you can do that, you are not an absentee manager. There are good and bad ways give feedback, but doing it at all means you are not an absentee.

The kind of manager being described by the article is unable/unwilling/uninterested in the organization's goals and how their team's efforts fit into the goal. The absentee manager will almost always respond to a request for feedback with "you are doing great, keep it up", regardless of the actual output. This is a soul crushing kind of experience.

I read the original, here's the newer one:

https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About...

There's no shame in being a founder and CTO while handing of the CEO role to someone with better management skills.

IMO there are a lot of problems with friends, teammates, etc. that suddenly make sense when viewed through the framework of oneself possibly having Asperger's.

I haven't started it yet, but a supposedly helpful book on the topic is "Asperger's on the Job" by Rudy Simone.